On 08 March 2024, a policeman misbehaved with Muslims offering namaz on the road in Indralok, Delhi. After the video of the incident went viral, Delhi police took action and suspended the policeman. Amidst this, a video of policemen arresting Muslims is being widely shared across social media platforms with the claim that the police have taken action on Muslim people in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh, as they were offering namaz on the road. This article aims to fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Police manhandled and arrested Muslims who were offering namaz on a road in Etawah, Uttar Pradesh.
Fact: The viral video is from March 2020. On 27 March 2020, a few people from the Muslim community gathered in a mosque and offered Namaz, violating COVID-19 lockdown rules. The police arrived, took action, and detained seven individuals who were offering prayers in the mosque and registered a case. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
To verify the authenticity of the viral claim, we conducted a reverse image search on the internet. This search led us to an extended version of the viral video uploaded on a YouTube channel named “NYOOOZ UP- Uttarakhand” on 27 March 2020. The video’s title was “Etawah: People were offering namaz in the mosque during lockdown, police arrived and created this situation” (translated from Hindi to English). The relevant portion of this viral video starts at the timestamp 02:01. According to this video, people were gathering in the mosque and performing namaz during the lockdown. The police arrived, initiated a lathi charge, took action, and detained some individuals.
The same incident was reported by a local YouTube channel named India Post News. According to the news report, the police in Etawah had taken action against a few individuals from the Muslim community for violating lockdown and Section 144. The police arrested 7 people who were offering Friday prayers in the mosque and registered a case against them.
Subsequently, we also found a news report by ABP News regarding this incident on 27 March 2020, which also reported the same. Based on all this information, it is evident that the viral video depicts police action against Muslims offering prayers in a mosque in Etawah, in violation of lockdown measures and is not recent.
To sum it up, an old video showing police action against people offering Namaz, violating COVID-19 restrictions in Uttar Pradesh, is being shared as a recent one with a false claim.
